Super Mario Maker: Crash Course

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Super Mario Maker: Crash Course was a series of stories written in dialogue format on the official website for Super Mario Maker, though the site is currently down as of May 24, 2019. In it, Yamamura teaches Mary O. how to improve upon her level design philosophy by creating better Mario levels.

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Episode 1

As Mary O. and Yamamura reflect on the success of Super Mario Maker (two million levels uploaded to Course World as of October 2015), Mary O. suddenly realizes that she has a level of her own. When Yamamura plays said level, he is instantly flabbergasted at how objectively poor the level's design is, citing the Thwomps stationed above the screen, Lava Bubbles placed in random locations, and the fact that there are simply too many enemies. Yamamura decides to teach Mary O. the basics of level creation, and challenges her to create a level with only the elements available from the start of the game and with no vertical scrolling, to which she accepts.

Episode 2

As Yamamura looks over the level Mary O. submitted, he surmises that the level is good for a start, and highlights that the limitations helped Mary O. understand the importance of placement. After pointing out how the Big Goomba close to the Goal Pole in his own level is "fun" to stomp on, Yamamura challenges Mary O. to create a "satisfying" level with the same limitations as before, to which she obliges.

Episode 3

Mary O. submits her "satisfying" level assignment to Yamamura. As Yamamura proceeds to make his own changes to the level, Mary O. realizes that his version is nearly identical to hers, and moreover, that she passed her assignment. Yamamura stated that she had learned about creating moments of both tension and elation when creating said level, and that she had already passed. After stating that he had hid the Super Star at the beginning in a Hidden Block to not make it the "intended" way to play, Yamamura talks about satisfaction of small victories, as well as shortening a pit for reasons he would go into later. Noting that there is nothing interesting about the level as a whole, Yamamura challenges Mary O. to create a "memorable" level with vertical scrolling permitted but still with not too many elements, to which she again obliges.